What the
stories have in common is our continuing delusion as a country that we can forever
be, and should be, the most powerful country in the world. Our dominance must
be total not only militarily but also economically—we must control the
world banking system and the global market.This
paradigm ensures that we will never have peace.So
much profit is involved in making perpetual war, and those profiteers in the
energy and defense industries have Congress in their grip. Meanwhile people in other
nations that want a bigger piece of the economic pie--who'd just like a roof over their heads, not a McMansion--continue to struggle
against our domination.

Caught in the middle are the patriotic
Americans who go to work every day as remote control assassins. Since last
August, they have “flown” 3,300 drone sorties and launched 875
missile and bomb strikes just in Iraq against the Islamic State. This
doesn’t count the strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. By engaging in a remote control war, our political leaders prevent Americans from feeling the impact of these killings and the cost to us.

What are we doing to these drone pilots?
Aren’t we sentencing them to a life of anguish and guilt? Who could get up
every morning and know that each day you will probably be killing people and not have that sear your soul, break your heart, destroy your compassion as a human being? They know that the missiles and bombs they launch kill not only "terrorists" but also innocent children, women and men.

Our fight against terrorism and terrorists is inextricably linked to the demand that we continue to control the world economy. The Times story about the Pacific
trade agreement whined on and on about how defeat of the agreement might weaken our claim to leadership in Asia, as if that were the only option that protects our interests. But what interests are we protecting? Left out of the story were the downsides of the deal as best we know them, given that the details of the deal are still a highly guarded secret. But from the reactions of Senators like
Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, who have read the text in a guarded room
in which they are not even allowed to take notes, there is danger to workers’
rights and the environment. I trust them on this one, and not Obama.

Can't we grow up and learn to share our prosperity? Can't we develop a vision of a peaceful world? I can hear the objections, that Russia and China and Iran and Syria and ISIS and Al Qaeda want to kill us. But where does it end? Who, better than we to seek a different way?

About Me

First as the consumer reporter for Newsday and The New York Times and now as a free-lancer, I write about people who have been ripped off or hurt by the system. One story won a George Polk Award for Public Service.
I see myself as standing in for people who’ve been abused, using carefully researched and written articles to expose the truth and equalize their fight.
I quit The Times when it censored my story predicting that the Long Island Lighting Company would go bankrupt trying to build its Shoreham nuclear plant. Soon after, LILCO avoided bankruptcy thanks only to a bail-out by New York's taxpayers.
I co-founded an ad-free women’s consumer website; edited a women’s cancer magazine, and now write for magazines. I have also taught journalism at Hofstra University.
For the past 3 years, I've worn a different hat as a community organizer starting community gardens in Huntington, NY, as a co-founder of the Long Island Community Agriculture Network. Getting my hands in the earth is an antidote to the craziness of politics and public policy.